focus
Americannoun
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a central point, as of attraction, attention, or activity.
The need to prevent a nuclear war became the focus of all diplomatic efforts.
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close attention or concentration.
Some of the warning signs indicating you should pull over: drifting between lanes, repeated yawning, tailgating, and trouble maintaining focus.
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the ability to concentrate one’s attention or to sustain concentration.
Mindfulness and meditation are often suggested to help manage stress, increase awareness of emotions, and improve focus.
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Physics. a point at which rays of light, heat, or other radiation meet after being refracted or reflected.
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Optics.
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the focal point of a lens, on which rays converge or from which they deviate.
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the focal length of a lens; the distance from a focal point to a corresponding principal plane.
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the clear and sharply defined condition of an image.
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the position of a viewed object or the adjustment of an optical device necessary to produce a clear image.
in focus; out of focus.
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Geometry. (of a conic section) a point having the property that the distances from any point on a curve to it and to a fixed line have a constant ratio for all points on the curve.
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Geology. the point of origin of an earthquake.
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Pathology. the primary center from which a disease develops or in which it localizes.
verb (used with object)
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to bring to a focus or into focus; cause to converge on a perceived point.
to focus the lens of a camera.
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to concentrate.
to focus one's thoughts;
to focus troop deployment in the east.
verb (used without object)
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to be or become focused.
My eyes have trouble focusing on distant objects.
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to direct one's attention or efforts.
Students must focus in class.
noun
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a point of convergence of light or other electromagnetic radiation, particles, sound waves, etc, or a point from which they appear to diverge
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another name for focal point focal length
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optics the state of an optical image when it is distinct and clearly defined or the state of an instrument producing this image
the picture is in focus
the telescope is out of focus
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a point upon which attention, activity, etc, is directed or concentrated
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geometry a fixed reference point on the concave side of a conic section, used when defining its eccentricity
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the point beneath the earth's surface at which an earthquake or underground nuclear explosion originates Compare epicentre
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pathol the main site of an infection or a localized region of diseased tissue
verb
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to bring or come to a focus or into focus
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to fix attention (on); concentrate
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The degree of clarity with which an eye or optical instrument produces an image.
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See focal point
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A central point or region, such as the point at which an earthquake starts.
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Mathematics A fixed point or one of a pair of fixed points used in generating a curve such as an ellipse, parabola, or hyperbola.
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The region of a localized bodily infection or disease.
Usage
Where does focus come from? What does the word focus bring to your mind? Maybe you think of a photograph that is clear and sharply defined. Or perhaps you recall a teacher tsk-tsking you to pay attention in class. But what about a fireplace?Well, the word focus comes directly from the Latin focus, which meant “fireplace” or “hearth” (that is, the floor of a fireplace). This is what focus originally meant in English when the word entered the language around 1635–45, though that sense has been extinguished, as it were. But the word focus burned on in other ways. As the 1600s unfolded, focus was given new meanings in the great scientific literature of that age, which were largely written in what’s known as New Latin. In the 1650s, the influential English philosopher and author Thomas Hobbes used focus for a kind of fixed point in geometry. So did Isaac Newton—you know, of gravity fame—in the 1690s. Other applications of the word focus in the late 1600s came about in the fields of medicine and physics. In physics, a focus is “a point at which rays of light, heat, or other radiation meet after being refracted or reflected.” Perhaps you can imagine how a fireplace or a hearth—contained areas and sources of heat and light—was likened to such a point in math and science. Dig deeperThe word focus took on a number of senses in optics, specifically “the point on a lens on which rays converge or from which they deviate.” A more familiar sense of focus is “the clear and sharply defined condition of an image,” as when the image isn’t blurry. Optics has also given us the expressions in focus and out of focus, which can be used both literally and figuratively. From these various ideas of clarity and convergence in optics arises one of the more common, everyday ways we use the word focus today: “a central point, as a of attention, activity, or activity.” For example, Finding a cure for cancer was the focus of his long career. Focus also refers to ability to concentrate, as in The teacher felt the students struggled with their focus. These senses of focus had spread by the early 1800s, around when various verb forms of focus take off. The adjective form of focus is focal.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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focusernoun
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misfocusverb
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refocusverb
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overfocusverb (used with object)
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focusableadjective
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misfocusedadjective
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misfocussedadjective
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self-focusedadjective
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self-focusingadjective
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unfocusingadjective
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well-focusedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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focussimple
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focusessimple
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have focusedperfect
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have focussedperfect
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has focusedperfect
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has focussedperfect
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am focusingprogressive
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am focussingprogressive
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are focusingprogressive
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are focussingprogressive
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is focusingprogressive
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is focussingprogressive
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have been focusingperfect progressive
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have been focussingperfect progressive
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has been focusingperfect progressive
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has been focussingperfect progressive
Past
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focusedsimple
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focussedsimple
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had focusedperfect
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had focussedperfect
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was focusingprogressive
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was focussingprogressive
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were focusingprogressive
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were focussingprogressive
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had been focusingperfect progressive
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had been focussingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of focus
First recorded in 1635–45; Latin: “fireplace, hearth”
Explanation
Focus is something that camera lenses and sleepy students are always being asked to do. For cameras, it means finding a point where the subject is clear or "in focus." For students, it means paying attention. Focus is all about finding a center — of a parabolic curve, of a lens, of a meditative state. In Latin, focus meant 'domestic hearth,' which just goes to show that not much has changed — since kitchens remain the focus of the modern home. Focus can be used as a verb, as in "I need to focus on my work, so I can play video games later;" and as a noun, as in "What is the focus of this essay? I can't tell, since the writer seems to be all over the place."
Vocabulary lists containing focus
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 2
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The Language of Standardized Tests, List 1
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Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“What we really focus on is safety of the system, resiliency of the system, and working on ways in which we can free up trapped liquidity by using this new technology.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Lecornu has asked the constitutional council to focus on three aspects of the law:
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Last week, it announced plans to change that by making Northern California a focus of its expansion, adding 60 new outlets to its network this year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Over the past few months, investors have shifted their focus from the biggest AI spenders to companies that will play an important role going forward.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
Shaking my head, I forced myself to focus.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
The fasting mice had better blood values, less fatty liver and liver inflammation and above all: they developed less liver cancer and had fewer cancer foci in the liver.
From Science Daily ● May 7, 2024
One of the foci will be located at the origin.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
TRY IT #5 Graph the ellipse given by the equation Identify and label the center, vertices, co- vertices, and foci.
From Textbooks ● Sep. 23, 2020
What can be said about the symmetry of the graph of an ellipse with center at the origin and foci along the y-axis?
From Textbooks ● Sep. 23, 2020
Ellipses have two centers, or foci; the more elongated the ellipse, the farther apart these foci are.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
For hire purchase loans, the Thailand company focuses on new electric vehicles where credit quality is better than for internal-combustion-engine cars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
River inspired Arturo Gonzalez to found his arts education nonprofit that focuses on gang intervention among young people in East L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
The legal challenge focuses on three main areas: major cinema releases, massive blockbusters, and cable TV channels.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
Colin Clark, the director of the Soufan Center, a nonprofit that focuses on foreign policy and terrorism, pointed out in an interview with PBS that the term “narco-terrorism” is a misnomer.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026
My mom focuses on the road and doesn’t say anything.
From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya
"The metallic tip acts like an antenna and focusses the electromagnetic field in a tiny area below its apex."
From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2024
“This shocking news focusses our minds on Michael’s wife Clare and their sons,” said Roy Taylor, a professor of medicine and metabolism at Newcastle University who co-authored “The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet” with Mosley.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 7, 2024
This latest research focusses on how this happens at the structural level.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 5, 2023
A substantial section of the document focusses on employment rights - a key demand of the unions.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2023
This is at once his weakness and his strength: his weakness, because it limits his own spiritual receptivity; his strength, because it focusses his power in dealing with materialistic minds.
From Seen and Unseen by Bates, E. Katharine
“Instead of pushing infrastructure or welfare spending, local officials appear focused on hidden debt resolution, reflected in the brisk issuance of debt-swap bonds,” said Alex Loo, an analyst at TD Securities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
They are usually staffed by lifelong public servants who, in an ideal world, are focused solely on making sure government officials properly use their taxpayer-funded budgets and legal authority.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026
The researchers focused on foraging, vigilance, and movement because each behavior reflects the difficult choices animals make when assessing danger.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
“They made the right call of not really getting into the politics behind the deal ... and instead focused on the facts of the case.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Jonah focused on balancing carefully, lifting his toes from the concrete on first the left side, then the right.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Across Caracas and La Guaira, many were focussed instead on Sunday services in churches to remember those lost and still missing.
From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026
She said previous studies had focussed more on porpoises but the picture "remained unclear" for common dolphins.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
A number of other parties focussed on picking up seats this way, which sees MSPs elected in wider electoral regions.
From BBC ● May 10, 2026
Anthropic for example has focussed its message on promoting AI safety and tighter regulation.
From Barron's ● Apr. 25, 2026
“Partly on his interest being focussed on what he calls ‘the soul,’ which he persists in regarding as an entity independent of the physical environment, whereas, as I tried to point out to him ...”
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
Part of the disconnect is that banks have been focusing their businesses on prime and super-prime consumers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
"They've had multiple chances to tell us about this but instead we have been left to discover it all two years later, when we should be focusing on recovering and moving forward."
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
I’m trying to focus on what I need to be focusing on, and that’s being present and competing and having success in the sport.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
If Acme had not accepted your documentation, you could have notified them in writing that you will contact your state’s insurance regulator, focusing on the evidence rather than the Acme adjuster’s motivations.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026
Instead of focusing on finding the anomalies in the situation, I was able to actually pay attention to the history taking place.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
The Green Party also has two sitting councillors and group leader Lauren McLay wants to see a new approach to housing focussing on affordability.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026
As chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, he criticised the scheme for focussing on "process rather than outcomes".
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2026
However, Tom Lubbock, from pollsters JL Partners, thinks focussing on Reform UK is "extremely smart politics".
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2025
"So I'm just looking forward to focussing on medicine in the near future."
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2025
Occasionally, focussing on a linguistic alteration can mislead us into thinking that something important has happened when it hasn’t, or that something happened at a particular moment when it actually happened earlier.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
